Video: Lighting Up the Trails for a Ride After Dark

 www.wired.com/2011/11/who-on-earth-thought-this-bike-mounted-umbrella-was-a-good-idea/amp

 @savagelake: hells yeah! All I need now is one of them f*cky Kurvyturd mudguards and I’m all set!

 @savagelake: And it gives a nice Mary Poppins effect when you come off a drop.

 Washington State just passed it, but we are waiting for the Feds to approve it...

 Thanks for the kind words, I was lucky to have the best dirt throwers in the business! Definitely takes way more planning than during the day, really hard to nail exposure too. Stoked you liked the illuminated features, was a last minute decision to do it that way!

 Haha, you got it right! In the jump section, I was completely blinded from the light reflecting off the dust. I felt like I was riding by braille.

 It's not my imagination that they look oh so similar to the cheap $35 Ebay & Amazon bike lights with the crappy batteries?
Looks like they ordered the same base hardwear from Asia and maybe hooked up their own battery to them?

And to Gemini, if this is somehow your own in house design and creation, it just doesn't look that way. Someone with knowledge wanna chime in?

 @bizutch: exactly my thoughts

 The cheap ebay lights are just that, cheap garbage. That's all I used to buy, but then got sick of the batteries catching fire (once while it was in my pocket while riding) and the drastically overrated lumen rating and crappy beam patterns. Got myself the Gemini Titan/Duo setup last year and it's sooo much better. And it's nice having piece of mind that my back pocket isn't going to spontaneously burst into flames. Just as with most things, you get what you pay for.

 @freerider11: I used the cheap ebay ones as well, had the same issues with battery and changer then switched to locally rebranded with safe batteries, still around 60-100 USD and no US 1 year warranty, but luckily EU standard 2 years
But 600 USD for a set of lights, well if you think you get what you pay for, happy you then

 @bok-CZ: Mind shooting me a link ?

 Yup, you can get the same set of lights for like $30USD with 4-Lithium ion cells (18650). The only difference may be the wireless remote. Some of the older Yinding lights actually did have the wireless remotes for about $30-$50USD, but I'm starting to think that North American and European "manufacturers" and sellers have caught on that there's a market to sell these high lumen lightweight lights with 10x mark-up price. It's ridiculous since a lot of people think that the higher the price of the product, the better the quality. However, it's pretty much the same product but rebranded. It's true that some manufacturers do have higher specifications when producing their products with a Chinese company. There are just different levels of standards. But if the lights are already produced with high standards in the first place, I'm sure the manufacturer will buy the rights to rebrand the product and have exclusive rights to sell it. I'd recommend people to look around and do their research before buying one of the brand name products. You'd be surprised what you can get for a lot lower price.

 @bizutch: I've owned everything from cheap amazon lights to expensive nightrider lights and I have to say the quality of the Gemini lights are far superior. As someone who night rides a handful of times a week, switching to the Gemini lights really made me enjoy those rides even more. The light beam is well diffused across the whole beam (no bright spot), the battery lasts as long as advertised and I have not had any overheating or battery issues (it's also relatively small for its output). Previously, I had purchased a more expensive light than the $350 Titan 4000. In comparison, the Gemini lights are far superior in every way. I can't rave enough about these lights. $350 for a high-quality Canadian product that pumps out 4000 lumens! That's hard to beat.

Also, the wireless remote links both lights together so that you only need to push one button on your handlebar to turn on and change the brightness settings on both your lights. It seems like a trivial feature but like the dropper post, you quickly become dependent on it and can't imagine a life without one.

 I'm not going to charge batteries I don't trust, especially those large capacity ones you get for front lights. It is not worth it setting your house on fire.

 @vinay: There's no doubt that's one of my worries as well. You can still get a pretty good set of lights without the batteries and use an existing good battery with similar connectors or adapter cables.

 @merinator: +1 on the wireless remote being used to control both helmet and bar lights simultaneously. Great feature. That and you can also customize the hi/med/low settings on each light to however bright you want it from 1 to 10. Also a great feature.

@bok-CZ: I didn't spend $600USD on my Gemini head and bar setup, it was quite a bit less. And again, well worth it for piece of mind on the quality. And if you do have issues then it's a local company (to me in Canada) that's stocked at my local bike shop. So any warranty issues are easily handled. Try getting any warranty from your eBay lights. You can either spend the money once now on good lights, or spend the same amount over the years on cheap chinese lights that need to be replaced frequently.

 @merinator: okay, thanks for input. How many months per year you use these? 2, 3 or 4? So you get one today and the next year you get new set when this one is out of service?

 @bizutch: It's their own in house design. I've seen the machine shop where they make everything. Don't forget that everything can be knocked off in China. Even the production factory that you've hired to make your products is probably knocking you off as soon as leave the factory. Just because lights look similar doesn't mean the quality is the same.

 @anthonyjoh: See...why couldn't you have been the 1st to respond? Now there's all this "clutter" above your answer.

 @bok-CZ: A good set should last you a while. Plus they will be able to provide you with all the tiny bits should you happen to break or lose something. I hate disposing of a product that becomes useless because I broke a tiny cheap but essential bit and there is no way to have it fixed. I'm currently running the first generation Lupine Pico set, eight years old or so. At some point my Camelbak was stolen from my car with the battery in there. As far as I know Lupine sticks to one single battery interface for nearly all of their lights (except for the insanely powerful one) so I could get a new battery. But if you wear out your battery at some point, they will give you a good discount if you turn your old one in. They also offer all those mounts, filters and will repair or upgrade your current light set. There is no way you're going to have that with a cheap mailorder set. As for going out of service, I currently am running this same battery for about four years without any noticeable drop in performance. I may only use the light in fall and winter but I also use that battery as a powerbank on summer trips.

So yeah it may be an investment but at least you can be confident that it is going to last you and you are able to get hold of replacement parts for a good couple of years. I suppose the same story goes for Gemini.

 @vinay: Yeah I have very good experience with Lupine too, just can't justify the price nowadays even though it has some cherries on top compared to competitors

 @bok-CZ: Yeah, maybe it is a thing that grows on you as you get older. I'm turning 40 this year. Back in the days I'd get the cheapest stuff (tools, electronics, kitchen stuff etc) that gets the job done. You don't have much money and most often when you're buying tools, it is also because you're buying materials for a project that always turns out more expensive than you initially planned. Then over time when something breaks or just turns out to be inadequate and a repair and/or upgrade simply isn't feasible. you feel kind of stupid. Because you're going to spend the money anyway and you're going to donate the world a broken/dangerous product. I may not be the typical consumer but at this point I just want to buy something that works, I'm happy with and what will last me a good while. Just like my hardtail frame. It wasn't cheap already and the modification I had made to the standard design didn't help either, but I've now got the frame I wanted for over ten years. I expect to happily ride it for a good couple of years if not decades.

So yeah, same for those lights. The power output is sufficient for how and where I ride. I may reach the point where I need to have the batteries replaced or I may break a mounting bracket in a crash. But all those tiny bits can be replaced. There is no such thing as "total loss". I like that.

 @vinay: I am 36 I totally got your point and most of the time or stuff I am buying I am following this. I don´t like cheap stuff, but not cheap in price but cheap in quality and my experience is that I can be happy for years with something 10x cheaper in price and only small difference in quality. And as I said upper, if it is so good, why only 1 year warranty? Those lights I am talking about are not one piece of crap, you can also replace whatever.

And the impact on other things when you have to make 600 bucks instead of 100 is also a point.
As I said before, if you are fine with the price for the product, go for it. I will pass.

 Looks like you had a nice night for it! Was pretty impressed the riders had no problem on Chainsaw at night, it's already hard enough during the day!

 Review of one of their lights here.

www.bikeradar.com/reviews/accessories/lights/front-light/magicshine-monteer-6500-light-review

 Don't forget the rainy ride hitting a patch of ice ride....

 These trails haven't been dusty in a while... and based on what they are wearing, I'm gonna guess this was shot awhile a go.... before the rain (and cold) arrived.

 ... fall leaves don't help either.